## Root Causes for Performance Issues based on Process Data:

The provided process variants offer insights into potential root causes impacting performance, measured here as processing time or cost (payment). Here's a breakdown based on the data:

**Rejections:** Paths involving rejections by Administration, Budget Owner, Pre-approver or Supervisor (or missing approvals) tend to have lower frequencies and higher processing times/costs compared to those approved directly. This suggests potential issues with:

* **Incomplete or inaccurate declarations:**  Rejections early in the process indicate declarations might require rework, leading to delays and additional processing costs.
* **Stringent approval criteria:**  High rejection rates by approvers could point to overly strict requirements, causing rework and delays.
* **Inefficiencies in communication:** Delays in receiving clarifications or resolving rejections could be impacting processing times.

**Resubmissions:** Variants with resubmissions after rejections show a significant increase in processing time/cost compared to single-pass approvals. This indicates that the initial rejection might not provide enough guidance for proper corrections, leading to rework and additional processing rounds.

**Pre-approval involvement:** Paths with a pre-approval step have a mix of performance outcomes. It's difficult to determine a definitive impact without further analysis. 

**Budget Owner involvement:** While the frequency of variants with Budget Owner approval is lower, they tend to have higher processing times/costs when rejections occur. This suggests that Budget Owner involvement might introduce delays, especially in rejection scenarios.

**Missing Approvals:** Variants with "MISSING" rejections (unclear who rejected) show high processing times/costs, highlighting the importance of a clear and defined approval process.


**Data Considerations:**

* Analyze rejection reasons to understand specific causes for rework.
* Compare rework times within rejected variants to identify improvement areas.
* Consider the cost of rework compared to potential benefits of stricter approvals.
* Analyze the impact of pre-approval and Budget Owner involvement on performance across different scenarios.

By investigating these aspects, you can pinpoint the root causes specific to your process and implement targeted improvements to optimize performance.
